1. Field of the Invention
The present application relates to an apparatus and method for controlling a color of a mask of a monitoring camera.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 illustrates an example in which a digital video recorder is connected to a plurality of monitoring cameras. In this example, sixteen monitoring cameras are connected to one digital video recorder (DVR). Further, camera images shot by the sixteen monitoring cameras may be written and stored in a hard disk HDD in the digital video recorder, or may be displayed on the screen of a monitor connected to the digital video recorder.
FIG. 2 illustrates the construction of a general monitoring camera. For example, the monitoring camera includes a zoom lens 10, a focus lens 11, an iris 12, a CCD 13, an amplifier 14, a signal processor 15, a mixer 16, an interface 17, a motor driver 18, a microcomputer 19, a mask generator 20, a memory 21, a keypad 22, and so on.
In addition, the microcomputer 19 operatively controls the motor driver 18, the signal processor 15, and so on to output a camera image shot in real time to the digital video recorder DVR. Moreover, the microcomputer 19 operatively controls the mask generator 20 to generate and output a mask image of a certain shape and color, and the mixer 16 synthesizes the mask image on a specific region of the camera image, thereby preventing the specific region of the camera image from being visible. That is, the masked region is generally masked or covered to establish some privacy protection or the like from the captured image.
However, in a general monitoring camera, the color of a mask image synthesized on a specific region of a camera image is generated as a certain color set by a user. Thus, there is the problem that when the camera image is lightened or darkened, it is difficult or impossible to identify the camera image requiring privacy protection.
Further, there is the problem that even if an object motion occurs within a specific region of a camera image synthesized with a mask image, the user cannot see the corresponding object image and does not even know whether or not an object motion has occurred because the mask image is synthesized.